Saussure Dilbilimi: Kaynakları ve Yöntem Sorunu

Abstract

This article has two main aims: introducing the Turkish reader to the studies and arguments on Saussure's philosophical as well as linguistic sources, on the one hand, and proposing a supplementary methodological point of view, on the other. After a brief summary of the works on the subject, it details the historiographical method elaborated by Koerner and suggests that it neglects explaining 'indirect relations' - that is, evident textual parallelism, but lack of historical evidence - for example, two cases first remarked by Benveniste, nearly forty years ago: George Boole and Paul Valery. This article argues that such parallelisms can be traced back to certain common sources: in this case, successively, Cournot and Breal, and, ultimately, Condillac.